Fatima Aberkane (Jihadi Militant, Belgium)

• Full name: Fatima Aberkane
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Belgian, active in Belgium
• Affiliation: Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]

Fatima Aberkane (°1961) is an influential member of a family with a long and storied history of jihadi activity. Relatives helped al-Qa’ida with the preparation of the September 2001 attack in which Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Massoud was killed.¹ Aberkane herself acquainted with Islamist extremists such as Bassam Ayachi and Malika el-Aroud in the late 1990s.²

In the early 2000s, Aberkane became peripherally involved with al-Qa’ida’s Nizar Trabelsi Module [NTM] which planned to attack a joint American and Belgian military base in the province of Limburg. She managed to evade arrest when the Belgian authorities rolled up the cell in late 2001.³

Aberkane was later involved in a plot organized by Aroud and her associates to free Trabelsi from prison. She was arrested as Belgian security forces foiled the bid in late 2007. Aberkane was released shortly afterwards due to lack of evidence.⁴

In the early 2010s, Aberkane became closely associated with Khalid Zerkani and his followers. She acted as one of the leaders of the infamous Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN] and was instrumental in radicalizing new recruits.⁵ Aberkane actively encouraged the network’s members to join the ranks of the jihadi forces in Iraq and Syria. She even recruited some of her own sons.⁶ Aberkane arranged financial and logistical support for KZN operatives who traveled to Syria.⁷ She also assumed to have helped broker contacts with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and its predecessors.⁸

Aberkane and two daughters traveled to Syria with two daughters in 2013 and 2014.⁹ During these journeys, she also visited Turkey where she helped coordinate and finance the transit of Belgian jihadis traveling to Syria.

After the Belgian authorities arrested Zerkani and a few of his associates in early 2014, Aberkane’s standing in the network and her role in radicalizing its members became clear. A court sentenced her to eight years in prison in July 2015.¹⁰ In April 2016, an appeals court imposed a heavier punishment and ordered her jailed for fifteen years.¹¹ Aberane appealed her sentence and was freed due to judicial procedural wrongdoings in August 2016.¹² A court rejected her appeal and police again arrested her in October 2016 to serve out the rest of her prison term.¹³